In the book, being released today, Eszterhas tells the story of his “rediscovery” of his Catholic faith in 2001, after being told that he had to give up his smoking and drinking addictions if he wanted to win his battle against cancer.

In an interview with the Toledo Blade, Eszterhas tells the story of his Damascus-road-like conversion experience. Some are skeptical, however: Kris Rasmussen of Beliefnet points out that the supposed “rediscovery of faith” came three years before Eszterhas’s first memoir, Hollywood Animal, which consisted of tales of his escapades—and this was not Augustine’s Confessions.

The 2004 book is chock-full of raunchy anecdotes and shameless self-promotion. He loves detailing his sex life and that of anyone he came across, like his one-night-stand with Sharon Stone that left her confusedly wandering the neighborhood wielding a butcher knife. Still, Eszterhas maintains that he has given up Hollywood and all of its vainglory. Now he only wants to be dedicated to his family.

Speaking of his family: in 1994, Eszterhas left his wife of 24 years to marry another woman whose husband had left her. Now he says one of his life goals is to “love my wife forever.” Maybe he means “this time.”